


Alluring

by draculard



Series: Pellaeon/Thrawn 30 Day Ficlets [2]
Category: Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Genre: At what point does a ficlet become a oneshot?, First Kiss, Forced coming out, Humor, It doesn't matter I don't care, M/M, Public Humiliation, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:35:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26234995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draculard/pseuds/draculard
Summary: This was just what Pellaeon needed today — a viral video of himself and Grand Admiral Thrawn, alone in a hotel room, both of them easily identifiable, wearing their uniforms.Kissing.
Relationships: Gilad Pellaeon/Thrawn | Mitth’raw’nuruodo
Series: Pellaeon/Thrawn 30 Day Ficlets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904581
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	Alluring

**Author's Note:**

> I know AO3 will say Part 1 and 2 were both posted Sept. 1, but trust me, it's different days here...

Pellaeon clutched the datapad, his jaw tight and his eyebrow twitching in disbelief. He could feel his knuckles turning white, but he couldn’t bring himself to loosen his grip. The video he’d been forwarded captured his full attention, sucking him in and simultaneously catapulting his spirit out of his body entirely.

It was a video of himself and Thrawn at their meeting with a triumvirate of Mid Rim Moffs last year. More specifically, it was a video from inside a hotel room. Not Thrawn’s hotel room; not Pellaeon’s, either. It was a nondescript, unassigned room, and Thrawn had overridden the lock with his access code mere moments before this video was taken.

They hadn’t known there was a camera in the room. Heart thumping, Pellaeon watched as the all-too-recognizable figures in the video explored the room. Thrawn’s posture was relaxed, confident — and of course it was, he was the instigator here, so his confidence only made sense; Pellaeon’s posture, on the other hand, was nervous, coy, and eager all at once. He remembered this day far too well. 

The first time they’d kissed.

His gut churned as, on the video feed, he started to walk past Thrawn, only for the Grand Admiral to grab his wrist. Pull him closer. Guide him to the bed. Run his hands down Pellaeon’s arms, only to rest them on his waist, his touch light and warm.

He watched himself lean forward, catching Thrawn’s lips with his own. Grimacing, he shut off his datapad and set it aside.

So. They’d been filmed. They’d been filmed in a slow and painfully shy make-out, in uniform, in an off-limits hotel room in Moff Arbaric’s estate. The timestamp quite clearly showed that they were supposed to be in a meeting at the time; he couldn’t even remember what excuse Thrawn used to get them out of it now. The point was, someone had been fortuitous enough to capture the whole thing on holo.

And now that same someone was trying to blackmail him. Pellaeon shuddered, calling up the frozen image of himself and Thrawn once again. He touched his mustache. Did it really look that _droopy_ all the time? It was supposed to be stately, regal, dignified; it wasn’t meant to _droop_.

He darkened the datapad and cursed himself for looking.

Well, Thrawn had to know, Pellaeon decided. He straightened his uniform and checked his expression in the mirror before he left his office, making sure his features were set to Military Neutral. Once satisfied, he set off at a brisk clip for the bridge, walking as fast as humanly possible without breaking into a run.

When he reached the bridge, he slowed to a more dignified pace, striding onto the command walkway with his head held high. Thrawn wasn’t seated at his command chair, but in a sea of gray and drab olive, it wasn’t difficult to find the single white-clad alien with blue skin. He stood near the viewport with an ensign waiting anxiously at his elbow as Thrawn, head bowed, examined a datapad.

The ensign’s eyes flicked toward Pellaeon. His anxiety seemed to increase tenfold. 

Oh no.

Pellaeon forgot all about his stately stride; he hurried over to Thrawn as fast as he could, breaking into a slight (dignified? fuck, he hoped so) jog for the last few steps. Thrawn didn’t glance up as Pellaeon joined him; his lips were drawn in a tight line, his eyes narrowed as he studied the datapad.

Or rather, the video feed.

“It’s gone viral, sir,” the ensign informed Pellaeon in an apologetic whisper.

“It’s…?” Pellaeon started. He trailed off immediately; he didn’t want to put it into words. One glance over Thrawn’s shoulder showed him all he needed to know. 

“Congratulations!” called a lieutenant from somewhere down in the crew pits in a stage whisper. Pellaeon whipped his head around to glare in the lieutenant’s general direction; at the same time, Thrawn looked up from the video, an uncharacteristically open frown on his face.

“ _Everyone_ has seen this?” he asked the ensign — a little too loudly for Pellaeon’s taste. Everyone on the bridge certainly heard the _question_ , even if they hadn’t seen the video … and they probably noticed the anxiety in Thrawn’s voice, too.

“Yes, sir,” said the ensign, using the same apologetic tone he’d tried on Pellaeon. He braced himself for a verbal blow-up; it didn’t come. Instead, Thrawn turned again to the datapad and watched in undisguised horror as the on-screen versions of himself and Pellaeon shared a soft, tender kiss.

His head shot up again, eyes wide. He caught Pellaeon’s gaze at once — and to Pellaeon’s surprise, the color of Thrawn’s face seemed to change. The blue over his cheeks darkened quickly, turning an alluring shade of indigo that Pellaeon had only seen on the Grand Admiral once or twice before. The tiny blue freckles on his nose, normally not visible unless Pellaeon was very close to him, stood out all the more.

He was _blushing_ , Pellaeon realized. Blushing deeply. Turning scarlet, actually. Well, in a manner of speaking.

And though he knew it was a bad move, Pellaeon couldn’t help but grin at the sight. He swallowed his smile as best he could when Thrawn saw his expression and shot him a glare. Not that it was a very effective glare when his cheeks were so blatantly heated at the moment.

“Come on, sir,” said Pellaeon quietly, taking pity on Thrawn. For once, he felt like he had the upper hand in this situation; Thrawn may be cool as ice during battle, but something like this.... He plucked at the Grand Admiral’s sleeve, leading him away. “Let’s go discuss this in private.”

Thrawn scoffed and mumbled something under his breath that Pellaeon couldn’t quite make out; he doubted it was even in Basic. But the Grand Admiral followed him down the command walkway without protest, both of them pretending not to notice the surreptitious glances sent their way from the crew pits.

They’d almost reached the door when the wolf whistles and whoops of congratulations began. This time, when Thrawn swore and hissed under his breath, Pellaeon heard every word:

Blushing furiously, Thrawn said, “I’m going to _kill_ them.”


End file.
